Michael Hissam: Simple advice on making your point

Forgive me for being so acerbic. However, the striking statement has special meaning in business communication.

In the past two months, I have seen nearly 20 business presentations. I am still trying to figure out the key messages from most. Verbal and visual collided all too often; they did not reinforce.

How many times have you been to business meetings or presentations where so much of the messaging and knowledge becomes lost in the clutter of a crowded visual? How much confidence do you lose with a presenter who reads the screen as though it were a lifeline? I have no problem with visuals (usually known as PowerPoints) supporting the presenter. It's what the presenter's team does in preparing the visuals that has me spitting nails.

One rule an "ancient" typographer from the print world told me in the 1970s holds so strongly today: "Never make the reader work."

In a presentation with visuals, the audience reads. Why do so many presenters -- big names and nearly big from companies big and small, near and far -- defeat their message by making the reader work to find the point of the moment?

As the holidays approach, I want to offer a little regalito -- a few pointers from workshops I designed after 37 years of pain and agony watching business presentations. I have seen too many emperors up there who overlooked a "sartorial problem." As many of you are "for profits," you have come to learn that messaging has a lot to do with winding up in the black. If you are a "nonprofit," the following also applies when it comes to support:

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It is OK to use visuals. However, you are the presentation. Unless you are the greatest orator in history, the right visuals will give you a one-two punch. Some people are visual learners. Some intellectuals may profess that no visuals is the best way. Just make sure the latter group doesn't put you to sleep.

The presentation represents your thoughts. Don't tell the secretary to make one for you from scratch. You need to do the draft; the niceties will come later from another keyboard. The good presenter invites team members to pick apart the meaning of every word up there. The audience wins in the end.

Know your messages. You are taking the audience on an informational ride to a knowledge destination. Don't fill the ride with baches (potholes) and topes (speed bumps). You need smooth sailing.

Respect the thought. I give demerits to my clients whenever any gives an apology for a visual. "I know this is hard to see É ." If the thought is that important, give it due respect by it being the only piece of information on the visual y no mas. Unlike manufacturing's lean drive for maximizing output into a single shipping container, cramming more information or data on a visual reduces efficiency. Spreadsheets and PowerPoints don't mix.

"But it looks nice on the computer screen É ." Here is the big booby trap that often causes the train wreck. Your visuals need to pack wallop. The first tip: Get up from the chair and go about 8 feet back from the screen. If you can't read it from there, your audience probably won't at showtime. Point size for type? Grandóte beats 12-point default any time. I get uncomfortable at anything smaller than 32; your viewers may squint. Palettes and pastels? Avoid them even at the risk of same old, same old. One major problem is "washout" from the room's lights. Very few fluorescent lights dim, especially in multi purpose rooms. Any physics major at UTEP would tell you about interference when there are two light sources.

Too many visuals: This is the wrong way to approach the issue. More visuals do not necessarily mean longer presentation. If someone says, "You can have no more than 12 visuals," that is a recipe for disastrous overloading onto visuals. Remember: Respect for the message. If you are not comfortable with the number of visuals, then ask yourself whether you are trying to deliver too many messages. After three or four, the audience forgets or some messages did not register in the first place.

Special effects and skating on thin ice have a lot in common. Do they distract or do they focus? We are not in the psychedelic '60s. Be realistic. The same applies to sound. In my years of conferences, meetings, conventions, conference calls or other gatherings, it is the sound system that reminds one of the lessons from Achilles.

I hope this helps. There's a lot more to business communication. Over the years I have seen so many business people with great knowledge fail to communicate through a presentation in any language. So many thought it was below their dignity to be trained in delivery and understanding the medium. Then they wondered, "What went wrong?"

Michael Hissam is president of Trans-National Executive Communications. He may be reached at michael.tnec@ymail.com

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